Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed commentary in this regard:

What they uttered is nothing but the despicable behavior of the confrontation-minded elements, dead-set against the June 15 joint declaration, to mislead the public opinion and a revelation of their black-hearted intention to turn the KIZ into a theater of the north-south confrontation in a bid to close it.

Complicated issues hard to solve cropped up in the work of the KIZ several times after the emergence of the conservative Lee Myung Bak regime in south Korea, but the DPRK has exercised patience and shown magnanimity for its smooth development and encouraged the moves to reenergize it.

Nevertheless, the Lee group has pursued such extreme policy of confrontation as "no nukes, opening and 3,000 dollars" in persistent negation of the north-south joint declaration and the idea of "By our nation itself," blocking the cooperation and exchange between compatriots and bringing the inter-Korean relations to collapse as the days go by. This resulted in completely demolishing the foundation of the work in the KIZ.

In order to bring the situation under control the north proposed a working contact for the revision of contracts on the KIZ and made efforts to realize it. But the south side defied these efforts and persistently raised the issue irrelevant to the agenda of the contact, deliberately laying a hurdle in the way of the contact. In the long run, it turned down even the north's proposal for having an additional contact, putting up an unreasonable precondition. The south side thus deprived both sides of the chance to have hard-won inter-Korean working contact.

The Lee group will be held wholly accountable for the unpardonable crimes it has committed against the nation, hell-bent on the confrontation with the north, by scuttling the work in the KIZ in which the aspiration of all Koreans after the country's reunification is reflected.